


the king takes a vacation day

by tusktooth



Series: pride 2020 [6]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medieval, Alternate Universe - Royalty, M/M, also pushing my ana/lena agenda, but like alternate medieval
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:15:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24759931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tusktooth/pseuds/tusktooth
Summary: Since the death of his wife, King Edmundo Diaz has lost touch with his people. Buck shows him the truth of living in the city.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Series: pride 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1772290
Comments: 2
Kudos: 96





	the king takes a vacation day

**Author's Note:**

> im gonna be honest this fic is like 1/3 of the original plan and i wrote most of it like a month and a half ago jkdflkjdsa planned to finish it for pride but I'm not invested in the show any more for various reasons so i cut it short and ended it fast. anyway this fandom has a severe lacking of aus rip  
> [find me on tumblr](http://twinkfjord.tumblr.com/)

Sometimes even a castle filled with your closest family, numerous servants, and visitors from foreign lands could be just as lonely as it was suffocating. It was something Eddie had learned when he was merely a child. Hell, it was the reason that he enlisted himself to fight in his grandmother’s army. He had hoped to find people that made him feel like anyone else despite the burden he shouldered.

But, in the end, King Edmundo Diaz wasn’t just anyone else. He was a king and in his palms, he held the fate of an entire kingdom. It was a responsibility that he hadn’t wanted, one that had been thrust upon him when his grandmother had chosen to retire from her position as Queen, her age making it harder for her to be present in court. Typically, the throne would have gone to his father, but he had built his life around managing the royal treasury and she thought it best to crown Eddie the king instead.

It had been too much for him when he was much too young. He had forced himself into a marriage with a woman who was terrible for him and they had borne a child before they were ready. And now she had died of the plague, which meant he was both a widower and a single father.

Christopher was the only good thing in his life, really. He was a happy child, even if he was different from most, and the struggles of being a young Prince didn’t seem to weigh on him as heavily as it had weighed on Eddie.

If Eddie could have his way, he’d leave the throne in an instant and settle down in a smaller town with Chris, give him a life as normal as that of any other child. Surely, Sophia or Adriana could take over, they had both always been more clear-headed. But his grandmother had chosen  _ him _ to rule, for reasons he didn’t quite understand. He couldn’t just abandon his kingdom.

A knock on the door of his bedchamber shook him from his thoughts. “Come in,” he said.

His grandmother entered, smiling politely. “We’re having a few nobles from the east over to dine with us tonight, Edmundo. You should dress your best.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m the King, Abuela. I always have to dress my best.”

“Boohoo, you rule a nation of people who adore you and are probably the richest man in the world,” she replied, crossing her arms over her chest. “I ruled this kingdom on my own for decades after your abuelo died. Do you hear me complaining? It is a responsibility and an honor.”

“Save the speech, Abuela,” he said with a sigh. “I’ll dress nicely.”

“I think that you should dress extra nice tonight,” she commented. “Can’t have yourself getting shown up by your son again.”

She had ulterior motives. There was no way that he was getting this lecture if there wasn’t something special about this dinner tonight.

“And who are these nobles from the east?” he asked his grandmothers.

“They’re called the Buckleys,” she replied. “Their daughter recently widowed and-”

“So the reason for this dinner is to set me up with a woman I’ve never met?” he asked. “Did you invite them here for this?”

“The family is here for trade reasons, I merely suggested they bring along their daughter,” she explained. “Mijo, you need to move on from that woman at some point and I think it could be nice to meet some new people. And the Buckleys are actually very influential nobles in that region. They lead the kingdom in numerous different exports and are known for their manufacturing of linens and chocolate! I’ve never met this woman but I’m sure she’ll be kind and understanding if you still need to heal, since she’s in a similar situation.”

“I got over Shannon a long time ago,” he said, as he had told her numerous times before. “I just have so much to worry about with the kingdom and with Christopher. I can’t bring romance into all of that.”

“I think you should at least try. This bedroom is too big for one person,” she told him. “And I think Christopher probably just wants to see you happy.”

She walked out of the room without another word, leaving him to process her conversation and, as he always did, do exactly what she told him to. Eddie sighed as he walked over to his wardrobe and pulled out one of his finest tunics, silken in a deep shade of green with swirls of a floral pattern in gold. With luck, the Buckleys would be half as impressive as his grandmother had pitched them as.

Eddie’s family had always been warm and loving and  _ close _ . They shared everything with one another and were typically wary of outsiders, which was probably reasonable for a royal family. His family was such an integral part of making him who he was that he often forgot that it could be so much different for other people.

It was certainly different for the Buckleys. That much was clear the moment that he walked in to meet them. The parents were standing together to the side, standing up straight and refusing to regard their daughter who was chatting with a man dressed in the uniform of the guard. The mother turned to give the two of them a dirty look before she and her husband walked forward to meet Eddie.

The men bowed and the women curtsied as he approached.

“Your Majesty, it is such an honor to meet you,” Lord Buckley said, reaching out to firmly shake his hand. “I met with your grandmother many years ago but this is the first time I’ve had business in the city since your coronation.”

“It’s an honor to meet you as well,” he replied with a smile. “My grandmother speaks very highly of you and your family.”

Lord Buckley squeezed his wife’s shoulder. “This is my wife, Lady Melinda Buckley.”

“Very pleased to meet you,” the woman piped in.

“-and these are our children,” he continued, moving so the other two were visible. “Our heir, Lord Evan Buckley, and our daughter, Lady Madeline Kendall.”

He stepped forward and kissed Madeline’s hand as she curtsied in greeting, a gesture that was expected in these situations, even if he wasn’t happy with being set up with a stranger.

“Let us go on to the dining room?” he asked them, leading them across the castle toward the room in which his regular dinner guests were waiting.

His grandmother had, predictably, placed Madeline in the seat next to his, which was at the head of the table. Her parents were beside her, across from his own parents, while her brother sat at the end of the table, next to Christopher and his aunt.

Eddie observed the younger Buckley man for a moment. He was clearly younger than Maddie, both physically and in his energy. He was tall with a nice build, certainly part of what made him a good fit for the guard. He had a small red mark on his face, perhaps a scar of some sort, but it did nothing to dampen his attractive facial features, with bright blue eyes and a kind smile, seemingly presenting the opposite energy than that brought forth by his parents. The guard was pretty big, being the primary group that defended the city and castle, but Eddie was still surprised he hadn’t seen him around before. It wasn’t as if he wouldn’t have  _ noticed _ .

Maybe he had been neglecting his people in the years since Shannon had died, to concerned with himself and his own family to go out and interact with the citizens or even meet his own fucking guard. Perhaps his grandmother had been right about him needing to open up more.

Their staff served dinner, something that was more traditional than what they typically ate in order to appease their guests from the eastern reaches of the kingdom.

His grandmother, ever the charismatic one in the palace, kicked off the conversation, drawing Lord and Lady Buckley into a conversation about the history of the land they presided often, a topic that Eddie was both uneducated about and uninterested.

Down at the other end of the table, they appeared to be having much more fun. Lord Evan was cutting up Christopher’s food for him, a task usually completed by a servant when he wasn’t sitting beside Eddie or his grandmother, and chatting with Chris and his aunt. Eddie longed to be there, having a normal conversation despite the formalities.

He decided to turn his attention to Lady Madeline, who had been noticeably quiet since her arrival.

“Lady Kendall, are you enjoying your meal?” he asked her politely.

She smiled. “It’s quite delicious, Your Majesty.”

“You can call me Eddie,” he insisted. “Those who sit with us at this table are invited to speak as friends.”

“Then you can call me Maddie,” she replied. “And I’m a Buckley, not a Kendall. That name died in the snow with my husband.”

“Maddie Buckley is a better name anyway,” he told her.

“Is it always like this here?” she asked, gesturing around the table. “Servants bustling about and big fancy meals.”

He laughed. “My grandmother would probably wish me to say yes, but I don’t think I should lie to you. Our meals are usually much more comfortable than this. And it’s typically just me, my son, and my grandmother. Sometimes my aunt when she chooses to visit. My parents are only in the city on business, so they typically aren’t present. And the food we eat isn’t usually this traditional.”

“That’s a bit of a relief,” she admitted. “I’ve been subject to formal dinners every night since I moved back home. If I am to stay in the city, I’m glad I’ll be able to get back to a sense of normalcy. Maybe I’ll even have a chance to cook for myself once or twice.”

“I tried that once,” he told her. “Chris told me, in the most polite way a little boy can, that I should leave the cooks to their jobs.”

“Ouch,” she said with a grin. “At least he’s honest with you, though.”

Eddie nodded in agreement. “Most people won’t tell a King the honest truth. It’s pretty much only my son and grandmother who do.”

“Often it isn’t considered very wise to insult a king,” she replied. “At least, not to his face. If they’re telling you the truth, it’s only because you love them too much to have their heads.”

He snorted. “Maybe so. Though, I’m not really the biggest fan of executions in general.”

“Is anyone?”

“You’d be surprised,” he told her, with a smile, even among the morbidity of their conversation.

Maybe this wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if a match truly was to be made between him and Lady Maddie Buckley. She was certainly pretty and she had proven herself to be kind and humorous. Sure, he didn’t really  _ want _ to be with her, as he had always secretly dreamt of one day marrying for love. But if he had to get married, she was far preferable to most of the other ladies of the court.

He looked down the table once more to see if anyone else was tuned into their conversation and his eyes met those of Lord Evan. In a mere moment, he turned them away and focused on his food. Eddie wasn’t sure quite what to make of it.

* * *

“I hear the great King Edmundo is finally remarrying after years of the lonely bachelor lifestyle,” Eddie’s personal guard, Lena, said as she leaned against his doorway the following morning.

He groaned as he adjusted his jacket. “And who, exactly, did you get that information from?”

“I’ve got eyes and ears in unexpected places, Eddie.”

“It was merely a dinner to meet a family from the east,” he told her with a roll of his eyes. “You can tell my grandmother that she’s getting a little bit ahead of herself.”

“She said you two hit it off,” Lena said. “That she had barely seen you in such good spirits since before you met Shannon. And you know that she can’t stop talking about how getting married would improve your reputation amongst the people, who primarily see you as a mystery, disconnected from your own kingdom.”

Eddie adjusted the crown atop his head, wishing that he wasn’t the one who had to bear its weight. “Maybe I should just marry you. It’s not like you give me any privacy anyway.”

“You’re not my type, Diaz,” she replied. “And even if you were a woman, you  _ still _ wouldn’t be my type.”

“It’s not like you’re getting much action otherwise,” he teased her, knowing that she’d scarcely had company other than that of her cats in the past few months, not that Eddie had fared much better in the past few years.

“Ouch,” she said before nodding toward the door. “Ready for your royal responsibilities yet?”

“I never am,” he grumbled but led her out the door and into the castle hallway.

Eddie’s typical mornings consisted of waking Christopher and preparing him for tutoring because it was something he liked to do personally in order to have time with his son, and then he had various meetings about smaller matters in the kingdom regarding finances or land disputes.

Today was different, though. Today he had court.

It was dreadful, really. He sat on his throne and looked down at people as they bowed to him for the privilege of airing all of their grievances. And it wasn’t as if he actually got to talk to the commoners most of the time, no. Most of the time it was rich merchants or nobles complaining about something that could be solved with critical thinking skills. All of this to make it seem as if he interacted with his people, even if he was actually just talking to the upper class every other Monday morning.

Usually, some of the nobles passing through the area would attend and sit in the wings and wait for lunch to be called, where they would eat and mingle amongst the other courtiers. As he took his seat, he was surprised to find Lady Maddie and Lord Evan sitting there without their parents.

Maybe they would be spending more time around the castle in the coming future.

The morning was fairly typical for a day at court. A merchant complained about a thief, who was already imprisoned and awaiting trial, in the hope that he could use his riches in order to make a desperate person suffer more than they already were. A nobleman from out of town came to complain about a lesbian couple living together in a village he presided over, which annoyed Eddie immensely. He told him to fuck off in the most sincere, polite way he could. Other than that, it was all dumb land disputes that made Eddie want to sleep on the throne, though he resisted the temptation.

At least lunch was better. It was one of Abuela’s old recipes, mass-produced by the cooks to feed everyone attending court. Sure, it wasn’t like the original, but it was pretty damn great anyway. Besides, he enjoyed seeing people who were used to the blandness of the kingdom’s more traditional food squirm.

To his surprise, Lord Evan seemed to be handling his food much better than more first time guests did which was surprising, given the part of the kingdom that he was from. Lady Maddie was no longer standing at his side, probably off socializing with all the other nobles that resided in the capital.

He decided to approach him. “I trust the food is to your liking?”

“Delicious,” he replied, mouth still full of food.

Eddie smiled. “I’m glad someone here can handle a little bit of spice. It seems that some of these nobles are allergic to flavor.”

“Not me,” he said, finally swallowing his food. “I’ve lived in the capital for over a year and traveled the kingdom a lot before that. I know good food when I taste it and this, this is phenomenal.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t realize that you’ve been living here so long. Pardon my apparent lack of attention, but I don’t think I’ve noticed you at court before.”

“That’s because this is my first time here,” he replied, a bit guiltily. “I came to the capital to escape all of this, to be a normal guy. I traveled all around the kingdom to find my place and I found it here, with my team in the guard, with my true family.”

“You’d call your friends truer family than those bound by blood?”

“Absolutely,” he said with a nod. “Other than Maddie, of course. But my parents are distant and quite focused on appearances. My team lets me just be me. With them, there is no ‘Lord Evan’. I just get to be Buck, and that’s how I prefer to live my life.”

The thoughts of living amongst the commonfolk filled his mind. Being Eddie instead of King Edmundo would be glorious. He never asked to be king and it wasn’t something that he loved to do. Perhaps there was a true calling for him somewhere in the world. He could give Chris the normal life that he had always wanted for him.

But in doing that, he would be leaving in the kingdom in the hands of someone else and thrusting this burden upon them, as it had been dropped upon his shoulders a few years back. It simply wasn’t an option.

“Sometimes I wish I could just disappear,” he admitted. “Move to a smaller town with Chris. But unfortunately, I’m too responsible for that.”

Buck shrugged. “Responsibility can be a bit boring at times. You should come disappear with me some time and spend a day in the city being just another man. Perhaps you’ll find a way to be responsible without running yourself ragged and nearly falling asleep on the throne.”

He opened his mouth to say something, it wasn’t often that someone found it in themself to call him out, not that he was really angry. He saw Maddie and a man he recognized from court over the past few years approach and decided to shut it.

“It’s great to see you, Your Majesty,” she greeted him. “Have you met my dear friend, Lord Josh Russo.”

“A few times, yes, but I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced,” he reached forward to shake the man’s hand. “Pleased to meet you.”

“You too, Your Majesty,” Josh replied with a playful smile.

“I hope my brother hasn’t driven you too mad yet,” Maddie continued with a wink. “He’s got a penchant for being annoying.”

“I am a perfectly wonderful guest!” he protested.

“I’ve been enjoying conversing with Lord Evan a lot, actually,” he told her. “We were simply chatting about the city. I hope you’re finding your time here to be enjoyable?”

“Very much so,” she said with a nod. “It’s a beautiful city and the people here are very kind. I can see why the Royal Family calls this place home.”

“Even if they don’t understand it in its entirety,” Buck added, almost as if it were a challenge.

Maddie glared at him out of the corner of her eye. “Well, my brother and I should be going. His shift starts soon. Thank you for your hospitality this morning, Your Majesty.”

She curtsied and Eddie kissed her hand. “It was lovely seeing you.”

As they walked away, Eddie found his eyes wandering to Buck rather than Maddie. He took in his height, his muscular frame, and thought about the charisma and fearlessness it appeared to be paired with.

The moment they walked out the door, Eddie prayed that he would see him again.

* * *

Chris’s tutor was a beautiful and intelligent woman by the name of Ana Flores. She was actually a noblewoman from a fairly large city that wasn’t far from the capital but was the youngest daughter and therefore able to explore her passion for teaching. She was actually another woman that Eddie’s grandmother had tried to set him up with, but as it turned out she wasn’t really interested in men. They had been great friends ever since and he liked to go to her for advice when it came to matters that he felt Lena wouldn’t truly understand.

As luck would have it, Chris wasn’t even there when he came to talk to her. His lessons must have wrapped up for the day already.

“Your grandmother already picked him up for the day,” Ana told him as he walked into the small room that Chris took his lessons in, not looking up from the paper she was marking up. “She wanted to spend some time with him while you were still busy with work. Carla is off today, apparently.”

“I think it’s her husband’s birthday,” he supplied. “I actually came to speak with you.”

She set her pencil down and looked up for him, gesturing for him to come inside.

Eddie sat on the edge of the desk. “Do you think Chris is alright? I can’t imagine being Prince Christopher is any easier than being Prince Edmundo was.”

“He’s been just as happy as ever during our lessons. Has he been acting otherwise outside of them?” she asked, brows furrowed in worry.

“Not particularly,” he said with a sigh. “I just worry about him. It’s a lot, you know?”

Ana nodded. “I do know. But I have a feeling that this isn’t really about Chris.”

“Not entirely,” he admitted. “But I do wish that I could give him a normal life and the opportunity to pursue anything he wants in life. Find out what kind of person he’s truly meant to be.”

“Because you’re not sure this is where you’re meant to be,” she inferred.

He nodded.

“Is there a reason for this sudden crisis?” she asked him. “Because it’s something that I’m sure you’ve thought about before but it seems to be weighing on you a lot more now.”

“I’ve recently become acquainted with a nobleman who has pretty much abandoned his title to live a normal life here in the city,” he told her. “And he’s found his calling in life because of it. And I, well I know that I owe my time to this kingdom, but I want to know for certain where I’m supposed to be.”

“Do you want my true and honest opinion?” she asked him.

“Well, I hardly want you to lie.”

“I think the throne is the place you are truly meant to be,” she told him. “You have all the features of a great king: kindness and fairness and strength. But you’re unhappy because you’re too preoccupied with the queen that your grandmother was to let yourself truly be the king you’re meant to be. She was a fantastic queen in her own way but you cannot reach your real potential if you’ve placed all your focus on being her. And, though you served a term in the military, you cannot discover the king you’re supposed to be without knowing the people you rule.”

“So you’re saying that I should ditch the throne and come back?” he asked. “I don’t think kings usually have the liberty to take a sabbatical”

She laughed. “Well, technically you have the power to do whatever you like, Eddie. But I’m referring to more of a vacation of sorts, or maybe just a day. Walk around the city and meet some people. It’s doubtful that you’ll be recognized in common clothes and you’ll probably be better for having done it, even if you don’t get the insight that you so desire.”

“I do have someone who can show me around,” he told her. “I just don’t know how I’ll talk Abuela into letting me do it. I may be the king but she’s still in charge of me. And then there’s the matter of ditching Lena for the day. As great of a friend she is, having a personal guard is hardly subtle and there’s no way she’d let me leave the castle alone.”

“Sneak out,” she suggested with a shrug. “Leave a note, though. You don’t want the entire capital locked down to search for you. As for Lena, just give her this.”

Ana grabbed a blank piece of paper and quickly scribbled something on it. She folded it up and gave it to him. “Don’t read it.”

He looked at the piece of paper in his hands. “Now I kind of want to read it.”

“Don’t,” she told him again before pointing to the door. “Now get out so I can finish grading your son’s outstanding work.”

* * *

After a few letters were discreetly passed between him and Buck through a poor postboy who looked absolutely ragged after having run back and forth across the city to exchange their correspondence, they arranged for the date of Eddie’s day off to be the following Sunday, as the only responsibilities that he had were regular meetings that could carry on without him and Ana was off so she could keep Lena distracted with a date, apparently.

Sneaking out wasn’t exactly difficult. Eddie had grown up in this castle and knew every little corner of it, especially when he was a child and used to sneak out to play with his friends at the river instead of going to his classes before he discovered what it really meant to be a prince.

Of course, Lena was usually a problem as she knew pretty much all his secrets and he lacked the ability to get away with lying to her. But with her taking the day off, he had no trouble slipping past the guard that was meant to replace her.

He was to meet Buck at work. He had worked an overnight shift and somehow insisted that he’d still have enough energy afterward to give Eddie a grand tour of the city from the perspective of a normal citizen.

Until he got to the guard station, he had to walk around the city alone. He pulled his cloak tightly around himself, fearing that someone would recognize him as their king. But, after a few minutes, he realized how disconnected from the people the royal family truly came to be. Today, he was just another man going about his business. As a person, he was delighted by the anonymity. But as a king? Eddie felt guilty as if he had been abandoning the people that he was truly meant to represent.

The guard station that Buck worked out was one of the smaller ones in the western part of the city. They weren’t far enough to be posted on the wall, but they also wouldn’t be working near the castle. It suddenly made a little more sense that he hadn’t seen Buck before; he was probably dealing more with crime and other emergencies local to this region of the city, where a lot of the less wealthy people lived.

Buck and his team were just walking back into the station when he arrived, still in uniform, likely just getting back after dealing with some issue.

“Eddie!” Buck exclaimed when he saw him, running back and slinging an arm over his shoulder. “Just on time to meet the team before they all go home.”

He dragged him over to the group of people he worked with. “Guys, this is Eddie! He used to work at me at that tavern down south if you’d believe that.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” he said politely, nodding to them.

“Chimney,” a dark-haired man offered, shaking his hand enthusiastically.

The woman next to him smiled. “I’m Hen.”

“And I’m Bobby, the captain,” the last man, who was older said, shaking his hand firmly. “It’s nice to finally meet you. Buck has been talking our ears off about you all week.”

He looked over to Buck, who was turned a bit red. “I mean, I wanted to let them know I was going to have a visitor.”

Eddie laughed. “No worries. I’ve been telling my friends about you all week as well. They just aren’t lucky enough to get to meet you today.”

“I have to change but then we can get going,” Buck told him before darting inside with Chimney and Hen.

Bobby stuck around. “You look familiar. Have I seen you somewhere before?”

And, crap, Bobby was an older guy which meant he’d probably been around longer and might have seen him if he was ever stationed elsewhere in the city.

“I don’t think so,” he said, probably all too quickly. “I haven’t lived in the city very long so unless you’ve spent a lot of time in the south I doubt that we’ve met before.”

“That’s interesting,” he replied. “Buck told me that you’ve been living here for the past few years and you only just ran into each other recently.”

“Oh,” he said, eyes widening as he felt sweat forming at his brow. “Well, I mean, I recently moved in from the  _ outskirts _ of the city which is why-”

“I was joking. Buck said you were new here,” Bobby said with an amused smile.

Eddie ran a hand through his hair. “I mean, it’s complicated, you know?”

Bobby laughed and patted him on the back. “It sure is. As long as you’re good with Buck, you’re good with me. Just don’t hurt him.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I wasn’t planning on it.”

“Neither was the last one,” he replied. “But you seem more earnest. And certainly more his age. I hope if goes well for you two. Nice to meet you, Eddie.”

He gave him a quick nod and headed into the building.

Buck came out a few minutes later. “Ready to go?”

Eddie opened his mouth to ask if he told his coworkers that they were dating but thought better of it. “Let’s go see my city.”

When Buck said that he was going to show Eddie the city, he had assumed he was going to give him the tourist treatment, stopping only at the most popular locations and then taking him out through the gift shops. As they approached their first destination, though, it was apparent that wasn’t the case.

“This is the river,” Eddie said as Buck led him to sit down in the soft grass at its bank.

Buck nodded. “It sure is. The best place in the city to relax and think about how beautiful the world is, as well as the best place to cool down after a long shift when the water’s low enough.”

“I’m been to the river before,” he told him. “I used to come here often as a child to hang out.”

“To this very spot?” Buck asked, gesturing around them.

“No,” Eddie admitted. The place where they had played was in the nicer part of town, where there was always a member or two of the guard standing watch to ensure that none of the children got hurt. Seeing this spot, where there were plenty of kids playing but no guard, he realized maybe they were only concerned with rich kids drowning.

“Most people on this side of the river are a bit better off than those just across it,” Buck explained to him. “Nobody is a noble by any means, but there’s a tangible difference in wealth just over a few feet of water. But here, all these people come together. People bring food to share and enjoy afternoons cooling down in the sun. People have found friends here by the river. People have fallen in love. And that’s part of the beauty in it, isn’t it? Not just that it’s a nice place to relax but that it really brings the people of the city together.”

They sat and just watched for a while. Children ran back and forth across the stream, giggling and splashing each other. An older woman was tending to a large pot over a firepit just across the river as people from both sides brought ingredients to add to whatever she was cooking. A young couple sat on the bank, holding hands and talking closely as they dipped their feet in the water.

“Everyone here is so happy,” he said quietly.

Buck nodded. “It’s almost like an escape, even inside the walls of the city. Life can be hard for everyone and these people don’t have a lot.”

“But they do have each other,” Eddie finished. “And they deserve more. There should be a bridge here so that people can cross to the other side even if they can’t get wet. How will these children play together when the water is high?”

“They don’t,” Buck told him. “Sometimes it means saying goodbye for weeks at a time at the drop of a hat.”

Eddie nodded resolutely. “I’ll have a bridge built here. Out of stone, perhaps, so that it’s sturdy enough to withstand hundreds of years of use.”

“It’s not a major roadway for merchants. Why would they build a bridge here?” Buck asked. “I agree that there should be one but you must have a good reason for it to present to your people.”

“Sometimes things can be done just for the good of the people,” he reminded him.

“Can they?” Buck asked. “Because they haven’t been. Not in a long while.”

“So this is your angle. To make me change the city?”

“I’m doing as I told you,” he replied with a shake of his head. “I’m showing the city to you how it truly is. If you want to know what it’s like to be a common man, I won’t lie to you. Less pressure is great but fewer riches, not so much. Still, any decisions you make reflect on your own heart.”

Eddie nodded. “I understand. Take me to the next place.”

* * *

It was getting near time for lunch so the next place Buck took Eddie was a small tavern. The place didn’t even have a sign outside its door so it was a wonder that it could stay in business. He supposed that if the food was truly as good as Buck had suggested, then word of mouth could be advertisement enough.

Except, the place was near empty when they went inside, other than a few people at the bar, getting their drink on a bit early.

“ _ This _ is the best tavern in the city?” he hissed.

Buck nodded resolutely. “Best food I’ve had anywhere. For a fair price, nonetheless. Come on.”

He dragged him to a small table near the place’s only window and sat him down.

An older man came over to their table a few moments later with a smile and slapped Buck on the back. “It’s good to see you, kid. Who’s your date tonight?”

Buck’s eyes widened in panic but Eddie just laughed and shook the man’s hand. “I’m Eddie and we’re just friends. I’m actually in town for a visit and he’s showing me around to all the best spots.”

“Well, why’d he take you here then?” the guy said with a chuckle.

“Come on, Red. We both know you’ve got the best damn food in the city,” Buck replied before turning back to Eddie. “This guy can cook a burger like literally nobody else. Everything else on the menu is phenomenal but the burgers, man, they stand out.”

Red laughed. “So two burgers then?”

They both nodded.

“We’ll both get some lager as well,” Buck added.

Eddie raised an eyebrow. “It’s a little early in the day for that, isn’t it?”

“Too good to have a drink with your Sunday lunch?” Red asked with an eyebrow raised.

He raised his hands in surrender. “Nope. I’m good. I’d love a lager.”

Red laughed and slapped Buck on the back again. “I like this one. You outta bring him around again before we close.”

“Close?” Eddie asked quietly after Red had made his way back toward the kitchen.

Buck nodded solemnly. “One of the richer guys in town has a chain of similar taverns to this, though far inferior in every way, and he just opened a new place down the street. He’s not a huge fan of competition, so he’s been pushing the local taverns to close the door. Red’s is the last on the block and he can’t stay open for much longer. They took down his sign a week back and returned it to him charred to shit and he got the message, I guess. It’s a real shame, though. Red put everything into his place after he retired from the guard.”

“Can’t you do something?” he asked Buck. “You’re a member of the guard.”  
“The guy has the higher-ups in his pocket,” he explained. “Besides, my station deals mostly with putting out fires and medical emergencies anyway. Bobby’s mission is to actually help people, unlike some of the other captains, who just want power.”

“That’s harder to fix than a bridge,” Eddie said with a sigh.

Buck nodded. “It is. The system is rotten to the core. If you want better guards, then you’re going to have to change everything. Make it more about helping the community and less about punishment.”

“I guess the most important things don’t come easily sometimes,” he said quietly. “That doesn’t mean that they aren’t worth fixing.”

“No. No, it doesn’t,” Buck agreed.

* * *

The last place Buck took Eddie was probably the most difficult to see, but vital nonetheless.

Far off near the edge of town, mere blocks from the south wall, there was a tiny orphanage. Now, Eddie wasn’t exactly a stranger to orphanages. When he and Shannon were engaged, they did appearances together at orphanages around the city, spending time reading to the children and giving them new toys.

He had never been to this orphanage. He’d never even heard of it, for that matter.

It didn’t look like much. Their sign was missing letters and the paint was peeling off of the walls. When Buck opened the door, he noticed that the handle was so loose that it might just come off.

“When you’re making appearances with my sister,” Buck told him. “You better not forget the children here.”

He raised an eyebrow at Buck being so forward as to say this without even trying to be quiet but he realized why merely a moment later, when a small child that was passing through, dressed in filthy rags, ran up to Buck and hugged him before gesturing in a way that Eddie knew to be the language of the deaf, even if he didn’t quite understand it.

Buck nudged Eddie. “Eddie, say hello.”

That sign was one that he did know, despite his limited arsenal of the language.

The child ran to him next and hugged him tightly before signing to him.

“Sara says that it’s nice to meet you and she thinks you look very kind,” Buck translated. “She also wants to know if you’d like to play with her.”

“Tell her that she looks beautiful,” he replied. “And that I would love to play with her if only I had the time. I have to get back to my own son soon otherwise he’ll get worried.”

Buck conveyed this to her and she nodded. She hugged Eddie once more before running up the creaky steps of the stairway, which lacked any sort of railing.

After a few minutes, they found the woman who ran the orphanage in the kitchen. She was an elderly woman with a large smile and, to Eddie’s surprise, a pirate-style peg leg. A teenage boy with shaggy long hair was standing beside her and kneading bread.

She laughed when she saw Eddie looking. “Have you never seen a woman without a leg before,” she said in a loud voice.

“I have,” he replied. “But it was a long time ago and she had a leg-shaped replacement.”

“Rich girl,” the woman said with a nod. “Not all of us are so lucky. I lost it in the same explosion that took my hearing. I don’t have a dramatic pirate story, unfortunately. Was transporting gunpowder with my father and the carriage flipped.”

“You are very good at reading lips,” he observed.

“Easy to read lips when they’re so pretty, Your Majesty,” she said with a wink.

Eddie’s eyes widened and he turned to look at Buck, who’s eyes were equally as wide. Obviously, it wasn’t something that he had told her, but she knew anyway.

The woman laughed. “I’ve lived in this city for over fifty years and I loved the royal ceremonies when I was a girl. Less so after you and your wife skipped us over but I blame her for that, to be honest. Rude woman, if you ask me.”

“Kaya!” Buck exclaimed. “That’s the dead Queen!”

“Nah. She’s not wrong,” Eddie admitted. “Shannon was quite uptight about appearances. Pretty much that whole tour was her doing.”

She grinned. “Maybe I’d still be going to royal ceremonies if all nobles were as honest as the King. Speaking of, what brings you to our orphanage today?”

“I’m showing him the city,” Buck explained. “And this is one of my favorite places. It’s mostly empty today, though.”

Kaya nodded. “Most of the little ones are out playing this afternoon and Amy and George are off at work. You know how hard it is to keep this place running.”

“I don’t have anything on me. I’m sorry,” Eddie told her. “I can come back and help you spruce this place up.”

“I don’t want your pity, Your Majesty,” she said with a sad smile. “Everything we built here, we’ve built without the charity of people that only pretend to care.”

“I’m not pretending,” he insisted.

It was true. Because his son had a disability and, while it wasn’t deafness, he couldn’t imagine Chris growing up in a place like this if he hadn’t been around. Sure, the small orphanage clearly had a lot of love, but what about fresh clothes? New toys to play with? Safer living conditions? He wouldn’t be much of a King if he sat by and let good people such as these suffer just because their lives were harder than his.

“Then why haven’t you taken an interest before?” she asked.

“ _ Kaya _ ,” Buck hissed.

“She’s right yet again,” he said with a sigh. “If I’ve learned anything today, it’s that I’ve been failing my people. I’ve been too distant for far too long. I came on this trip to get some clarity on just about how foolish my stupid dreams of running away from it all may be. Now I can see that running is the last thing I should do. My job is one with a lot of pressure but my people need me. How can I abandon those that have been ignored by my ancestors?”

“Perhaps you aren’t a fool,” Kaya said with a smile.

Eddie laughed. “Oh, I certainly am. I’m just learning.”

* * *

Buck walked Eddie back to the castle, regaling him with further tales about his time living in the city and telling him about the bumpy road of Maddie trying to adjust to the city lifestyle, which involved getting lost a few times and getting into a fight with a guy on the street that catcalled her, which probably would have gotten physical had Chimney not been present.

Before the reached the back gate of the castle where Eddie planned to sneak back in, he pulled Buck aside.

“I just wanted to say thank you,” he told him. “For all of this.”

“I hope it wasn’t too much of a downer,” Buck replied. “Next time I’ll give you the fun tour. I just thought it was important that you see some things aren’t easy for people. And that you still had fun along the way.”

“I did,” he said with a nod. “And I’m glad you showed me all of this. I need to be a better leader for my people. If there are all these problems in my own city, I can’t even imagine what I’ve been neglecting in the rest of the kingdom.”

“You’re going to be the best King we’ve ever seen,” he told him with a soft smile. “You have a kind heart, Eddie, and you care about your people. Just a day walking among them and there’s so much that you want to change.”

“It’s my duty to them,” he said with a nod. “Protecting my people is the sole purpose of my position. Doing my job would not make me a good King. Neglecting that duty, however, would certainly make me a terrible one.”

“I give you official permission to court my sister,” Buck told him.

Eddie thought back to the day that they had together, and even to their moments of conversation before. He thought of how Buck fearlessly took Eddie to the places he was passionate about, that were truly important him, without any fear of how he would react. He thought about how Buck seemed to believe in him more than anybody else, even if they’d only just recently met.

“And what if I don’t wish to court Maddie anymore?” he asked, a bit hesitantly.

Buck raised an eyebrow. “I mean, you can’t get much better than Maddie if you wish to marry another woman. But if you want to be single, I trust that you’re done with the isolation thing.”

He shook his head. “I won’t neglect my people any longer, but this isn’t about that. My duty to my people is to make their lives easier, not to force my own to conform with tradition. Why should I go out with a woman if I don’t have an interest in her romantically, especially while I’m interested in someone else?”

His eyes widened. “Eddie, are you-”

Eddie nodded. “Buck, you’ve shown me an aspect of the world that I’ve never seen today and all without worrying about what I would think. Your sister is kind, but she’s not the Buckley that I’m interested in.”

“I’m not even a noble anymore,” he protested. “I left that life behind me years ago. My parents only invited me to dinner for appearances’ sake.”

“Maybe that is for the best, then,” he replied. “Because you understand the citizens of this city better than I ever had. Your perspective is important to me.”

“Is this you proposing?”

He laughed. “No. This is me asking you on a date. A real, proper one.”

Buck smiled. “I think that I would like that.”

Eddie looked at the castle, where the future of his kingdom was waiting for him.

“I should go, but I’ll send you a message when I’ve organized something since it’s technically my turn.” He kissed his cheek. “I’ll see you soon to show you the city as I’ve known it.”

“Sounds terribly fancy.”

“Perhaps,” he agreed. “But when there’s a nice steak in front of you, being fancy can have its perks.”

As Eddie walked back up to the castle, he grinned. He had the power to change the world and had met someone great who wanted to help him. Maybe being King wasn’t as terrible as he had thought.


End file.
